Why is it the banks fault? It's the persons fault for spending beyond there means. If you make 35,000 you shouldn't be living in a 250k home. People need to take responsibility for there actions. THEY signed the papers, THEY knew what they were getting into. I don't feel bad for these people. they signed papers KNOWING they had a variable interest rate, then they act surprised when the interest rate goes up and they can't afford their payment anymore. WTF did you think was going to happen? interest rates were going to stay at 1% forever? why is it my fault that the bank gave 10 assholes a loan that they couldnt afford that drove up the prices on my block? They are bankers they know about money, and believe it or not actually spend quit a bit of time in school learning about it. Wether you want to admit it or not "people" are not educated about money or investing. They dont know the difference that one percentage point will make in their loan payment, they dont know what an ammortization schedule is. That is why we have bankers, if everyone was smarter than them, bankers would not exist. If you can answer this question with a well thought out response I will shut up. When something happens to you medically, and you had previously just seen a doctor, why is it the doctors fauly? When something happens to you financially, and you had perviously just seen a banker, why is it "your" own fault? Skimmed through most of this. Having been a banker for 8 years, and worked at the then 5th largest bank in the country (Bank One, now Chase), & then 5th largest in the state (Sky), in all different capacities...mortgage lending, consumer lending, retail branch, new accounts, sales, investments, etc.....I can tell you you're giving them WAY too much credit. Anymore....It's resembles the used car salesman job you mentioned above, than the old time lenders. There were times I thought a well trained sales monkey could do my job more the way the bank wanted it done.....Which was all about bottom line sales #'s.....Ethics & customer service were silently second priority & mostly paid lip service as a way to justify/rationalize selling the client more products/services. Many of the people I worked with on the branch level were not college graduates, or were fresh faced just out of. Bottom line.....Either nowhere to go, or new & eager to please/easily molded 10 years ago when I was in the lending arena, most of the actual processing & documentation were done elsewhere anyways. Not even locally, but several main hubs across the country. So the front line branch person we all deal with was just in charge of attaining & submitting sales/applications & paperwork. They don't actually qualify you anymore like the old days Bank One even had a name for it......"Share of Wallet", and had done studies about how many products, and which ones, they needed to sell you to have the best odds of you not switching banks. They figured if they had you in 4 of their products, preferably a high interest DDA & SAV, loan, & auto bill bay IIRC, which they called the "Grand Slam", that they had you locked up & you weren't going anywhere just for a free cooler, toaster or camp chair. They would even have weekly contests to see who could "sell" the most accounts....even ATM/debit cards. Bet you didn't think that was a service/product that needed/could be "sold" They'd even have mandatory Monday morning "Big 5" meetings with all branch personnel to come up with the top 5 ways to "sell" the product of the week to the bank clients. Never heard of "Big 5"??.....Google Marty Cohen Banks spent millions for this psychiatrist turned salesman to teach their employees his sales system. Had to sit through the drivel of that pompous a$$hole once with each bank & feign enthusiasm while fighting vomit, or else risk being labeled negative & a "non believer". It was like being taken over by a cult, and nothing you say or do can stop it. I watched as the once customer driven community bank I'd moved to drank the Jim Jones kool aid after getting bought out by Sky & quickly started walking down the exact same "sales" culture Bank One had preached/brainwashed Anyways......As you can tell....I can go on for days about how "big" banking has turned into a used car lot anymore. Even the tellers have quotas to hit for how many times they try to sell you a product or get you to talk to someone, or else risk getting disciplined if they don't. The loan originators are no different. They get paid on commission or salary +(car salesman) & have pipelines & sales goals they have to forecast & hit.... or else. Plus most long term ones are hooked into the local realtors, who only give their referrals to originators they know can get things approved....QUICKLY. Don't wanna dry up that gift horse, do 'ya??? Sooooo.....How free from conflict do you think they are when it comes to lending you a $250,000 loan, when they know you only make $60,000/year.......But they still need to loan another $500k to hit their projected pipeline/sales goal for the month??? If they can find a program to get you approved (which there have been an abundance of since the Clinton days...That's why there are so many "non bank" mortgage brokers these days).....They're gonna make you that loan all day long so they can feed their family & keep their job for another month. Most big banks sell their loans on the secondary market (i.e. investment pools), and once that happens......The original bank/originators, etc are all off the hook for whatever happens with that loan later on (i.e...default, foreclosure, etc) So when everyone's standing around with their hands in the air right now, wondering how in the hell the housing market & economy got into this mess to begin with.....They can get all fancy & complicated with their explanations, but a lot of it boils down to simple pressure on the little man...... "Joe, we want you to hit x sales $$ this month/year, since you did w $$ last month/year. What do you have in your pipeline to achieve that #? Where are you going to get more to feed your pipeline to achieve your now higher goal, so you can close more loans this month, and keep your job & feed your family for another 30 days/year?" If you've already reached saturation....Are you gonna start compromising your ethics/ideals by finding more flexible/creative (riskier) loan programs....Or risk losing your job if you don't hit your #'s ?!?
